1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of integrated circuit design and, more particularly, to implementing an integrated circuit design in one or more programmable logic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuit design and testing continues to grow in complexity as the complexity of the integrated circuit itself increases. With every new generation of integrated circuit fabrication technology, the number of transistors that can be included on a given integrated circuit chip increases, which further contributes to the increased complexity.
A programmable logic device implementation of all or portions of an integrated circuit design is one option that can be used during the development of an integrated circuit. Programmable logic device implementations typically operate at higher speeds than software simulations, permitting more extensive testing and/or more complex testing. For example, running the actual boot software that is planned for use with the integrated circuit can be feasible in a programmable logic device implementation. The programmable logic device implementation can be used to detect various software bugs and/or issues between the software and the hardware at an earlier stage of the development.
Generally, the design files that describe the integrated circuit design at a high level, such as a register-transfer level (RTL), require modification to be used for the programmable logic device implementation. Additionally, various other modifications and additional information is used to implement the design in a programmable logic device. The designers of the integrated circuit and/or verification engineers that work with the designers must generally perform these modifications and additions manually. The process is error-prone and often results in lost time determining why the programmable logic device implementation is not working. Additionally, much of the work must be repeated, again manually, when new versions of the integrated circuit design are provided for programmable logic device implementation.